The most sacred site in Islam, situated within
the precincts of the Great Mosque at Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is a small
cube-shaped building, unadorned except for the sacred Black Stone, a meteorite,
set into the E corner of its walls. Earlier shrines on this spot were important
centres of pilgrimage even in pre-Islamic times, but in AD 630 Mohammed
stripped the Kaba of its pagan decorations and it became the spiritual centre
of Islam. The stone, or qibla, is the focus-point to which Muslims turn when
they pray.